Bench vises

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 8:10 pm

Funny how things get shoved back and largely forgotten sometimes. I was looking at some stuff in the corners of the farm shop today and ran across a woodworking vise I bought years ago at a yard sale for about $8. It is a heavy older Reed quick action vise with 4" x 10" jaws. I didn't measure the opening width but it opens quite wide. It also has a sliding dog on the front jaw. I carried it to the wood shop and checked it out. It is in good shape in general but will need some cleaning and a fresh coat of paint. Much like a Shopsmith it will need the ways polished and waxed with some JPW. I'll also make it a pair of hardwood jaw faces. My old homemade vise is at the right side of the bench and I will put this one on the left side.

[ATTACH]24067[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]24068[/ATTACH]

This is my old homemade vise I made maybe 30 years ago from some stuff I had and a $2.50 yard sale screw assembly.
[ATTACH]24069[/ATTACH]

.

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 3:35 pm

I have started to clean up my Reed vise about 4 or 5 times today but keep getting side-tracked by other jobs or shiny objects.

I did take it apart and inspected it carefully. Everything is perfect. I will clean it well and polish the ways a bit but decided to not paint it nor to polish the ways to full bright like I would on a Shopsmith. It's a shop vise... No matter how well I paint it it is going to get scratched and chipped. I'm just going clean it up and give it a good going over all over with JPW and mount it... After all just look at how sparkling and spiffy the rest of my bench looks.

Part of what has side-tracked me a few times has been trying to figure out exactly where I want it. I do want it toward the left end of the bench but may not put it right at the corner. I may mount it about 16” back toward the center where I already have a row of dog holes. I normally never work off of the left side of a vice on that left corner anyway. It's just not my lifetime work pattern.
I would like to find another steal on a quick action vise and mount it around on the very end at one end as a tail vise mostly so I can hold a long piece end-wise with the vise dog and a bench dog or two.

.

terrydowning · Post by **terrydowning** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 4:29 pm

Farmer that vise is no good.

Please send it my way and I'll take care of it for you.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 4:47 pm

My step one would include washing soda, battery charger some scrap steel and a bucket(plastic).

dgale · Post by **dgale** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 6:24 pm

That is a fine looking vise - no way that thing would slip past me at a garage sale, particularly for $8!

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 7:32 pm

I did finally get this Reed vise mounted. After a bit of thought I ended up mounting it around on the end as a sort of tail vise except on the left end instead of on the right as you normally see them. I have an overhang on that end that lent itself well to mounting there.
I needed to make a handle for it and while I have a lot of oak doweling I latched onto it was all either too big or too small. Being quite frugal (cheap) I also save old broom and mop wooden handles. Looking through those I found one that was a perfect fit.

I cut off a piece and drilled a cross hole in each end and glued a short dowel in the holes to serve as handle stops like I did on the homemade vise shown earlier in this thread. I'm happy...

.